


On the Fringes

by Rubber_Souls



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Mostly Crack, POV Outsider, The boys aren't actually in it all that much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 12:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11691444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubber_Souls/pseuds/Rubber_Souls
Summary: Hayley just wanted to see the country and eat some pie.





	On the Fringes

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a friend. She started noting how much she felt like she was in an episode of Supernatural while travelling for work, and thus, this was born! Hope you all enjoy it!

It started innocuously enough.

Hayley was on a cross-country road trip. She’d been planning it for years, hitting every major tourist attraction all over the country, and took a year off. Realistically, it would only take a few months, but, let's be honest, she was going to get lost. And she didn’t want to just stay in each place for a day or two. It was supposed to be relaxing after all.

So, she set out from New York City on a Monday morning at the start of Fall with a map of the US, a duffle bag full of clothes, some camping gear, and some non-perishables in her Mazda.

The first few places she stayed at were decent. Not the best, but not the worst either. It was only a week into her trip that she realized if she was going to make her money last as long as possible, she’d have to save on the living arrangements. So, on the 9th day into her trip, she checked into The Pines Motel.

She crinkled her nose as she walked into the room. The only one they had left available. It was a two-queen, and smelt faintly of new paint and rotten eggs. Hayley just sighed as she dropped her duffel on the bed closest to the door

“At least they renovated recently,” she mumbled, making her way to the washroom.

\--

Most of the motels she stayed at after that night were the same. The faint smell of sulfur, sometimes with a copper tang mixed in, covered by the overpowering scent of new paint.

\--

It was a month before anything weird happened again.

She was visiting the Broward County Mystery spot. Or she had been, except it was lame. I mean, really lame. She sighed, turning around and walking out before some dick walked into her. 

“Watch where you’re going,” she heard him mutter, pushing past her. “Bitch.”

Hayley glared after him, but decided he wasn’t worth it.

“Wish people like him would just disappear,” she sighed, smirking at the only other person in the place, a guy with shaggy brown hair who was leaning up against the wall with a sucker in his mouth.

“Now there’s a thought,” the guy chuckled, a glint in his eye.

The next day as she was eating breakfast at the diner near her motel, she saw the missing persons bulletin in the paper.

“Oh…” she mumbled, looking down to her ‘Pig ‘n a Poke’, suddenly losing her appetite. Which was a shame, because it hadn’t even been the daily special.

After paying the bill she decided to move on.

“Fuck,” she swore, searching around the bathroom and beds with some clothes in her arms. “Where the fuck did that bra go?”

After another few minutes, she gave up. Packing up the rest of her stuff, she closed and locked the door behind her, before checking out and getting back in her car.

Halfway out of town she thought, ‘Shit, did I leave the alarm on that cheesy 80’s station?’ After a moment of thought, she shrugged, putting the town in her rearview mirror.

\--

Everything was fine for another month. She was okay with the weird smelling motel rooms, and tried to put the unfortunate encounter with the missing man in Florida out of her mind.

But then the pie happened.

It started in a diner in Kentucky. She had just pulled up, quietly admiring a classic Chevy that was in the parking lot, before parking and walking to the door of the diner. She bumped into a gruff looking guy in a brown leather jacket. He quickly apologized, hardly sparing her a glance, and she waved it away as she walked in.

She had a hankering for pie. It was lunch, there should have been plenty apple pie left. So, with a smile on her face, she ordered a slice of apple pie with some ice cream.

And then the waitress spoke the absolute last words Hayley wanted to hear at that moment.

“Sorry Sugar, we’re all out at the moment.”

And it _kept happening._

After a while, and three state lines, Hayley just stopped ordering. It wasn’t meant to be.

\--

“You’re shitting me, right?”

Hayley was in another motel that night. Her friend, Eddie, had called, desperate to talk to her about “the biggest thing ever, Hayley, oh my God, you won’t believe it!”

“What?! No! Why would I lie about this?!” he yelled over the phone, and Hayley pulled it away from her ear for a second before bringing it back. “I’m telling you the truth! We fought honest to God Ghosts! These two muscle-y guys in plaid helped us out!”

“And you got all this on film?” she asked, skeptically.

“Well… I mean, we _did_ …” he mumbled, trailing off.

“But…?” she asked, raising an eyebrow even if he couldn’t see it.

“But it got… erased.”

“Uh huh. Sure.”

“Stop saying it like you don’t believe me! Ask Harry! I’ll put him on the phone!”

“Look, Ed, I’m tired. I just got into another weird smelling motel, and I swear I see a little bit of blood over there by the corner. Plus the friggen motel clerk warned me about two psycho’s who were here a few days ago,” she sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Can we do this whole thing tomorrow?”

Hayley heard him sigh over the line before agreeing and wishing her a good night.

\--

Everything was pretty tame for the next few months.

The motels still smelled strange, the stories of weird goings on and a strange psycho in plaid still circulated, but the pie came back which Hayley was happy for.

And then, one late night, whoever was in the room next to hers went _ballistic._

She didn’t know what was going on, but Hayley was jolted out of sleep by the sound of glass _smashing_ on the other side of the wall. It went on for a minute before she got pissed and banged on the wall.

“Hey asshole!” she yelled over the noise. “Some of us are trying to sleep over here!”

A moment later, the noise faded, just the tinkling of glass and the slam of a door left. Hayley grumbled, a distant ringing in her ear and she wrapped herself back up in the blankets and pushed her face into her pillow.

At least this place smelled somewhat normal.

The next morning when she went to the nearby diner, it was understaffed. Apparently some giant madman came in and attacked the night staff.

And the damn pie was _gone_.

\--

She'd been back home for about a month when it all fell together.

It was a Saturday morning, and Hayley was baking some brownies for her former neighbour's memorial service later that day. She had died a few days back in her apartment, but no one really knew how.

Her other neighbour, Rachel, was with her, trying to steal bits of the brownie batter from the bowl when the lights flickered.

“They really need to fix that,” Hayley said, glaring up at the kitchen lights. “I mean, it's been how long now?”

“They had an electrician in the other day,” Rachel answered before hopping up on the counter next to the stove. “Said there wasn't anything wrong with the wiring or breakers.”

“Well obviously they were wrong.”

“Or its ghosts.”

Hayley snorted.

“Yeah, right.”

“No one likes a skeptic Hayley,” Rachel sang, a smile on her face.

And then there was a knock on the door. Hayley glanced at it before looking back to her friend with a stern look.

“No touching the batter.”

She opened the door to two… eerily familiar men in suits. They were both tall - one freakishly, the other averagely - and seemed to be in their element.

“Hayley King?” the shorter one asked. She could have sworn she’d seen him somewhere… “I'm Agent Plant, this is my partner, Agent Page. We’re with the FBI.” Both of them held out their badges for her to look at, but she continued to stare at them. Where the hell had she…

After a moment of silence, they both awkwardly put their badges away.

Was it while she was on her road trip? Let's see, there was the guy in Austin, the couple in Tulsa, that gorgeous car from that diner in...

“Uh, anyways,” the taller one, Agent Page, started. “We wanted to ask you about-”

“I know where I've seen you!” she suddenly shouted, snapping her fingers and glaring at the shorter one. Both their eyes widened, and they started stuttering. “I can't believe it!” Hayley raged, jabbing a finger at them. Both men took a step backwards as she advanced.

“Everything okay?” Rachel asked, sticking her head out of the kitchen.

“That's him! The guy I was telling you about from the road trip!” Hayley yelled, gesturing to the shorter one, Agent Plant?

“The guy from that Mystery Spot in Florida?” her friend asked, coming closer.

“Wait, what?” Agent Page asked, a baffled look on his face.

“No! The other guy! The pie guy!”

“Ooooh.” Rachel looked over to the agent, a look of pity on her face. “Good luck, dude,” she said before making her way back to the kitchen.

The guy spluttered, looking between the two girls before he looked back to his partner.

“How is this fair?!” Hayley yelled. “I get deprived of pie for _months_ , and you just show up like you're not the _worst._ And _how do you look like that when you eat so much damn pie?!_ ”

“Wait,” Agent Page said again. “This is about _pie_?”

“Not just any pie,” Hayley told him angrily. “ _Every_ pie in literally _every state_ I visited for _three damn months_! Every damn diner I stopped at had just gotten cleaned out! It stopped for like, four months in the summer and then started back up again! And it was you!”

“Uh, we're just gonna go…” Agent Plant said awkwardly, backing away with his thumb pointing over his right shoulder.

“Yeah,” she said, glaring at him.

“Oh!” Rachel called, sticking her head back out of the kitchen. “If you happen to run into the landlord or Super, tell them they still need to do something about these lights! All the damn flickering is giving me a headache.”

Before either Agent could ask anything else, Hayley slammed the door in their faces, still fuming.

“Well…” Rachel said, an amused smile on her face.  “They were kind of cute.”

“Nope,” Hayley declared. “Pie thieves do not get to be considered cute.”


End file.
